Heart of the Sky
by everythingfeelslikethemovies
Summary: JimxAriel, Rated T for potential swearing and/or triggering material. Ariel is miserable underwater, and longs to be a human instead. When Ariel finally gets the courage to trade her voice for legs and a chance at a soul, a young sailor named Jim Hawkins agrees to help. But helping a mermaid adapt to life on land is trickier than expected, especially when that mermaid is Ariel.


Carefully, I turned the human treasure around in my hands, examining it from all angles. Although I had no idea what it's proper name was, it was beautiful. It was a gold sand dollar on a long thin strand of golden seaweed. The sand dollar was cut in half so it could open, and I assumed it once held something inside. But spending likely years under water damages certain human objects...like whatever the sand dollar had contained.

How can he think humans are savage harpooning fish-eaters? I wondered, How can a world that makes such wonderful things be bad?

With a sigh, I tossed the treasure back into the water and watched it sink. As I was reminded constantly: a mermaid can't take anything without giving something in return. There's nothing for me to give.

"Ariel?"

I glanced over my shoulder and saw a blond merman swimming towards me. It was Urchin, one of my only friends.

He pushed his heavy bangs from his eyes before hoisting himself onto the rock next to me, "We've been searching everywhere! Have you been here the whole time?"

"Pretty much," I replied with a slight smile. When I woke up this morning, I just felt...off. So I swam as far as I could away from Atlantica until I ended up here, in Montressor.

"You haven't been above water all day, right?" he asked, eyebrows furrowed with worry.

"Of course not," I wasn't that stupid.

He took my hand, "Doesn't matter, you need to come home now. Your father says no one's going to rest until you're safe at home."

"Can't I have a few more minutes?" I resisted as he tried to pull me back into the water.

"You know what'll happen if I let you stay," he gave me a look, "You'll get distracted and forget and then your dad's going to look for you himself. Do you really want to be confined to the palace again?"

It's sad how routine that's become, "No I promise I won't. Please? Just tell Daddy I'm on my way..."

"Ariel..."

I sighed, "Please Urchin?"

"No! I'm not going to let you get in trouble again!" I wanted to shrink back and hide inside a clamshell, he was terrifying when he raised his voice.

"Is someone out there?" a voice called.

Urchin and I both jumped and turned to look at the beach, where a figure was standing near the waters edge.

"Human!" Urchin hissed, "Ariel! Get in the water now!"

Although I tried to be quiet, there was still a loud splash as I slid off the rock.

"Are you all right?" there was a slight sloshing sound; the human was coming in after us! No! Bad human! Go back to the beach! Go!

"C'mon we have to go!" Urchin dove under with a flick of his seaweed green tail and started to swim away.

I hesitated though. It was extremely risky, and dumb of me, but I peered around the rock to see if I could catch a glimpse of the human.

Before I could look for even five seconds, I was dragged by my hand back down under and pulled along for several minutes until the water pressure was too great for a human to withstand.

"That was a fantastic idea," Urchin said sarcastically, "Stay behind and wait for the human to catch you."

"I just wanted to see," I shrugged, looking back in the direction of the beach.

He sighed, "Let's just get back."

We swam in silence back to the underwater kingdom. As soon as we crossed the border, two swordfish guards swam up to me and escorted me to the throne room. Like I don't already know where it is.

Urchin swam ahead, and managed to get the first word in, "Your majesty, I found her."

My father, King Triton, looked up and saw us. He looked relieved, and then angry, "Where were you young lady?"

"I..." Montressor was far away...I had no legitimate reason to have gone there...

"She was swimming around the reef, at least that's where I found her," Urchin answered.

Daddy raised an eyebrow skeptically, "We checked the reef. Twice."

As always, Urchin didn't so much as blink, "On our way back she explained to me that she's been all over. Perhaps your search parties were just in the right places at the wrong time?"

"There were several search parties out looking, and they didn't spot you at all," he crossed his arms.

"Well maybe they aren't good at hide and seek," I muttered.

"This isn't a game Ariel!" he snapped, "Do you know how stressful it is when I don't have any idea where you are for an entire day? The fact that this is the second time this week it's happened only makes it worse."

"It's not like I don't come back every night," I argued. He makes it sound like I try to swim away all the time, when I actually haven't even tried since he unbanned music.

"One day you might not! I'm not being unfair by wanting to know that you're safe!"

I crossed my arms and stared at the ground.

Daddy sighed and rubbed his forehead, "I can't take this right now. It's late, Ariel, go to your room. Urchin, make sure she gets there."

"Yes sir," Urchin grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the throne room.

When we were far enough away from my dad, I yanked my arm away and swam on my own.

"Ariel," Urchin called after me.

"What?" I sighed and turned.

"It's not just your dad that gets worried when you go missing," he said quietly.

Yeah, Attina. But she's only worrying cause she's trying to act like she's my mom. That's it, though. No one else cares.

He swam closer to me, "How many times have you almost been caught by a human? Honestly?"

"Just today," I lied. The other time doesn't count though, he only saw me for a quick second right as he woke up. Probably thinks I was just a dream.

"Stop acting like this isn't a big deal," he said, a little harshly.

"It's not a big deal!" I rolled my eyes, "I just wanted to look at him. That's all, I was just about to go under but you didn't give me a chance."

"He was two feet away from you!"

Okay, it was NOT that close.

I sighed and pushed aside the purple seaweed curtain so I could swim into my room. Urchin breathed in sharply like he was about to say something, but then he didn't.

All of my sisters were already asleep, to I tried to be quiet as I swam over to my seashell bed. Not that it's possible to be heard over Attina's snoring.

Realizing I wasn't going to fall asleep anytime soon, I swam over to the large window my mother requested be carved. From here, I had an incredible view of Altantica. If only I WANTED a view of Atlantica.

I wished Urchin hadn't dragged me under, not being able to see the human left me with a lack of closure. For a moment I had sworn that it was the boy...the boy from so long ago...

The treasure I had been admiring earlier, it was one I had actually found long ago. My mother had brought me to the bay, telling me that the best time to find treasures was when sailors were boarding a new ship. Random objects would be knocked overboard, and the humans knew not to go jump in after them. Perfect.

One man had dropped the golden sand dollar, it almost looked like he had done it on purpose. Very distinctly, I could remember the way it had shone in the rising sun before slipping from his outstretched hand, while he made no move to stop it from falling.

Only moments after the ship had set sail, a young boy ran onto the pier and leaned out as far as he could in a desperate attempt to stop it. He cried out, hoping the sailors would turn around...and when that didn't work he screamed for his father to come back...and to not leave him...

My heart ached for him, but I didn't understand how he felt. At least, not until two weeks later when the same ship killed my mother.

But the boy had a soul that stood out from all the other humans I've seen. His shone a blazing orange like a solar flare. The human that had almost seen me...his soul had the same burning purity that dimmed the stars.

It was that boys soul that had started my desire to have a soul of my own, to not be connected to the sea like all the other Merpeople. When I died, I wanted to grow wings and fly into the clouds. Not turn into sea foam.

But a mermaid has no soul.

I sighed and plucked a purple flower from the underwater lilies decorating the outside wall. After touching the petals gently, I let go and watched the current carry it away from the palace. I wished the current would sweep me away, and take me far away from everything.

Unfortunately, that's not how the sea works.


End file.
